Q&A: Anna Faris on Topher Grace’s Obsession with the 80s: “He Has a Lot of Atari Gear”

I’ll show my hand here: The House Bunny is required viewing for anyone who wants to be my friend. And Anna Faris, the titular bunny, is an effervescent comedic genius, who also made films like Smiley Face, The Hot Chick, and Observe and Report. She also stars in Take Me Home Tonight, a sincere rom-com that is set in the 80s, but opens today. Since I love just about everything in the preceding two sentences—Anna Faris, her cinematic oeuvre, the 80s, 80s rom-coms, today—I gave Anna a call to talk about feminist film theory, universal bisexuality, seeing movies while high, and her co-star Topher Grace’s scary obsession with Star Wars figurines.Brett Berk: So are you on some sort of four-interviews-an-hour schedule in the lead-up to the release of this movie?

Anna Faris: No. You’re my second and final for today. But I have a radio tour tomorrow. Those are a little brutal, because there’s always the shock jocks. They get really personal, and want to know, like, What’s your favorite sexual position?

In my opinion, you should be starring in a movie like The House Bunny twice a year.

Are you funding it? Because I think I might need some financing. [Laughs.] But I do have some good stuff coming up. I’ve got an R-rated romantic comedy coming out in September. And I’m really excited about that, because the character I play is kind of refreshing for me. She’s pretty flawed. She sleeps with a lot of guys, she drinks a lot, she’s unemployed.

I love her already. What’s that called?

What’s Your Number?

I’m going to watch for that. That’s like a black-tie event for my friends and me. Speaking of, we believe that The Hot Chick should be on the syllabus of every queer-studies or feminist-film course. It’s such a complex and hilarious assault on gender normativity.

Whoa. You know, I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about this. And I am a little surprised that The Hot Chick has had any sort of resonance. But I guess it sort of speaks to the notion that we all may be a little bisexual. You know, there might just be a hint.

My husband just got very excited.

One more about you oeuvre, and then we’ll move on. Is it possible—or even advisable—to watch Smiley Face while not stoned? (I’ve never tried.)

You know, my parents saw it, and I was a little bit worried, because my mom somehow thinks that I’m supposed to be a “role model.” But to my delight, they loved it. And they weren’t stoned—that I knew of.

So Take Me Home Tonight is like an homage to 80s-youth romantic dramedies. It reminded me of Valley Girl, one of the best of the pack. Do you have a favorite movie from that time period?

This question is a little tricky, because my parents were very strict and didn’t let me watch any movies. So I kind of skipped that period. But I was able to see them later. And I think all the John Hughes movies are great. I think that they speak to a frustration that you have when you’re growing up. And I think 80s movies dealt with socioeconomic factors a little differently than we do now. The rich kids had all of the power. And the poor kids, you know, were the ones you rooted for. And I think in Take Me Home Tonight, we touch on that same conflict.

Why exactly was Take Me Home Tonight set in the 80s?

I think because Topher Grace—who was one of the producers—is obsessed with the 80s, in a way that’s
it’s actually a little crazy. He’s got a lot of Atari gear, a lot of Star Wars figurines. But it was really important for him to not mock anything, and to have this be a grounded movie. I think some of our characters are all eighties’d-out with their looks, but for the most part, he really wanted to honor the realism and not make a spoof out of it.

I appreciated that, having been an adolescent in the 80s. But I saw it with a friend in his 20s and he was like, “It should have been more 80s.”

I think he might not be alone in that. It was a conscious effort—we just didn’t want to overdo it. The poster, on the other hand, is a little bit embarrassing, because I look nothing like my character [Wendy]. I mean, my character is a really insecure person, even though she’s got a lot of sass.

Yeah. You often play seemingly ditzy and endearingly insecure characters whose underlying genius and insight is eventually revealed. But in this movie, you play a seemingly smart and endearingly secure character whose underlying lack of insight is eventually revealed.

I think because I’m really an insecure person, I think that I love to hide behind characters, and I feel like a lot of the characters I play tend to hide behind character as well.

That is so fucking meta.

[Laughs.] Yeah. But I think playing Wendy for me was a really nice change—to feel like I could be a little quieter and a little more grounded. Wendy is a bit of an observer in the movie, and that was a nice switch.

Last question: You’re well known for your spoofs in the Scary Movie franchise. If you could spoof one of the roles that was up for an Oscar this year, which would you choose?

I think it would be amazingly fun to do Natalie Portman, because I’d love to, like, pick my skin off up to my elbows. But do you have another suggestion for me?

I’d love to see you do Jesse Eisenberg from The Social Network. But even better would be James Franco from 127 Hours. If you like picking your arm, you could have even more fun sawing your arm off.

That would be awesome. You’re so right. I wasn’t really thinking male. I should have had an open mind.